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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
Happy New Year!
It is still difficult to believe that I started this site in 2002 and it is still going strong, although sometimes it gets a little difficult to find things to put in the diary that have not been there hundreds of times before.
As you know we are hoping to find a buyer for this villa during 2009 and move to France, but even if we do succeed we will still maintain a diary of our adventures there, as they will be very different to what we have experienced here.
Today, after eventually going to bed at 2.30 a.m. we took our time at getting out of bed. I think I got up and made coffee at around 8 o'clock and then we sat and read for another hour. One thing for sure. we will not starve today, there was plenty of pork etc left from last night. Late morning we did go over to Pat & Bryan's place, as 1st January is Pat's birthday and I had promised to go over for a coffee and a cuddle, to wish her Happy Birthday.
Today I had the feeling that a dose of "Man Flu" was coming my way, you know the snivels and the start of a bad throat. Must get stuck in to the lemsip a.s.a.p., or maybe I could try a large scotch.......
No good taking the paracetamol type cures too soon as John and Sandy had invited us round for a open house gathering and I can hear Joan now, "you can't drink with paracetamol". She is probably right which is why I favour the whisky cure. Quite a good crowd round there as usual and of course we had to go round to John's escape hole, a huge garden shed with a train set all laid out. Talk about boys and their toys, this is a toy train with a difference.
Good do Sandy, as always.
Short sharp news today because I am certainly feeling very much under the weather. No good applying for the sympathy vote though, I have learnt that much without even trying.
This evening it was Pat's turn to play mine host for the gang. I really should have stayed home and just gone to bed, but she had promised corn beef hash and on the basis that my old granny used to say, "Feed a cold and starve a fever", who could resist. Joan and I did bail out at 9 o'clock and Bryan made me wash down my dinner with some of his best scotch. No contest really.
This morning I met up with Bob from the garage that we have always used and swapped cars, as mine was due for service. So eat your heart out there in UK. Loan car from the boss of the garage, full 35,000km Honda service, car washed and cleaned inside, total cost 295YTL or £125.00 in old money. I remember paying three times that 7 years ago in UK and had to get somebody to travel with me to deliver and pick up.
Thursday night out with a difference. Stewart and Barbara's anniversary, which meant we had to pick someplace a bit nice, said Stewart. Well we opted to go to Pastamania on the road up to Edremit. Stewart wanted to try this place as he had heard from us that it was good and he was of course right.
The speciality of this restaurant is of course Italian and the owner, a Turkish Cypriot, has come back from Australia to open up here, after many years experience down in the southern hemisphere. Everything is freshly prepared and he is very happy to add and take away ingredients off his menu dishes so that you get exactly what you want. Delicious food and highly recommended.
A good night out and with Stewart buying the drinks a real result.
Joan needed to go over to Nicosia this morning, so we combined this with a nip across the border so that she could go and view both Debenham's and M&S sales. She must be sickening for something as she actually came away empty handed, now that's what I call a right result.
Obviously, as we were there, we nipped in to the supermarket and did our weekly shop, getting back home mid afternoon. Richard turned up about 5 o'clock as we had suggested going out to the Charcos restaurant in Alsancak. he had never been there before and we had told him about the lovely restored village house and superb traditional food. He was not disappointed and now agrees with me that they serve the best sheftali in town.
Thankfully we have had lots of rain during the last week, mostly at night and it has been that steady sort of rain, not the short sharp torrential sort, so maybe it is now starting to get through to the reservoirs. Don't believe that we have had anything like enough to sort out the summer needs, but at least it is a start.
Not too early out of bed this morning as wanted to make a start on the newspaper so that I could try to pick out a few bits for you back there in UK. Then Joan decided that she was going to church, so that meant that 8 o'clock was the end of my possible lie in, no sympathy for a guy still suffering with "man flu".
So when she went out I got stuck in to some of these maintenance jobs that need doing, such as the filters on all the taps that silt up from time to time and replacing some of the silicone fillers around windows etc. This stuff just dries out in the hot summers and then the rain identifies were you need to pay attention. Stops one getting bored I suppose.
Anyway back to the newspaper. Last week a great fuss about the possible fanfare opening of the long awaited bypass. This week it has hit the skids again, as the contractor has admitted a 4.5 million lira loss, so the completion work will have to go back out to tender. Ah well its only 14 months late and we are all using the first section anyway, probably illegally, but at certain times of the day it shortens the journey.
Lots of praise in the paper for the various fund raising efforts on behalf of charities over the last twelve months. Lots of money raised for cancer charities, children in need, animal rescue charities etc and it is clear that many retired expats spend lots of time working for these charities.
Our neighbours in the South at at it again. Now they have issued a 23 million euro compensation claim against one of the biggest building companies here and another against a builder of a development in Sadrazamkoy, where it just so happens that our President owns a villa, for 2 million euros. Now the lawyer involved from the south has openly stated that it is not their intention to put political pressure on the Turkish Cypriots during the current negotiations, but that the gathering of evidence has just taken a long time. Now if that is not a big joke, then what is. Anybody like to hazard a guess as to the value of the Turkish Cypriot owned land, that is now Larnaca airport.
We all lost our internet connections for about three hours on Wednesday, because once again some builders managed to cut through the fibre optic cable which connects us all to Lefkosa, across the mountain. This is not the first time, but clearly the cable is not very deep, very well identified and certainly not protected.
Good news for one member of the Home Buyers Pressure Group. They won their case in the local court for shoddy building work and the builder has been ordered to pay compensation of £175,000 to enable them to buy an alternative property that is actually suitable to live in. At least there are cases being recognised where building standards to do not exist and historically anybody with no building experience could set themselves up as a builder.
Ugh. Finished the complete course of anti-biotics, like the good boy I am, by Monday evening and thought that's it I have beaten it. Just a sort of hacking cough remained but a few if those Strepsil type sweeties should fix that. But I obviously spoke too soon as yesterday I was back again with the old beak streaming all day and night in fact I felt so rotten I stayed in bed until after three o'clock. I know you are gong to say "typical man" just looking for the sympathy vote.
Apparently there is lots of this going around at the moment so at least I am not alone. Does mean of course that not very much has happened, except on Tuesday night when we did have a boys night at The Ravine bar. Lots of the usual chat about things and a moan from Stewart as he had to pay out 100TL to the vet to get their stray ginger Tom seen to. Apparently he was trying to hump everything in sight so it seemed the only solution. Stewart only worried about this loss of 100TL not Gingers loss of a couple of important bits.
Still suffering the runny nose etc but Joan and I decided to give a new restaurant a try this evening.
Some of you may remember that we used to sing the praises of Hensons restaurant, when Bob and Maggie used to own it. Well they have been out of there for almost two years now and the followers managed to destroy it in about 6 months flat. Since then it has changed hands, but not with any great success. We recently heard that it had been taken over again and is now called The Red Lion, a true English name for you. Well some good reports have been coming our way so we rang and booked for just the two of us.
This restaurant can be found on the road down towards The Denizkizi Hotel, in Alsancak. At this time of the year they are of course indoors and have to say it was lovely and warm in there and we were greeted well by the owners and a group of ladies who were playing darts. The menu is quite extensive and very English, with dishes like fagots with mushy peas and onion gravy. I chose to try a steak with a strong pepper sauce, whilst Joan had a homemade steak and kidney pie. Both meals were plentiful and very well cooked and we were glad not to have had starters and certainly did not need any pud. Coffee and Brandy comes complimentary with your meal and drinks prices were very reasonable. During the winter they have event evenings, such as darts on Thursday, so if you just want a good meal in pleasant surroundings then check this one out, good value and nice people.
You would hardly believe it. The temperature has gone up to the mid 20s today so decided that a couple of hours in the garden might clear the sinuses, followed by a sit in the sun to read the weekly newspaper.
Whilst the elections to change this government are already under way, with a polling date in April, it hasn't stopped them having a go. This time they are saying that there will be a clamp down on residency and work permits. It is a known fact that every expat over the age of 18 needs a residency permit or work permit if gainfully employed. This is of course nothing new, but this clampdown follows the deportation of one family who were living here and running market stalls etc without any form of residency etc. I think that every expat is fully aware of the rules but some just choose to ignore them and have to accept the consequences.
A warning about car insurance in relation to accidents with vehicles from the other side of the border. Because of the the political situation on both sides it would appear that in some cases people have taken advantage of this. One serious case involved an English couple who faced huge medical bills which should have been covered by the Greek Cypriots insurance, as he fell asleep at the wheel. However after a very short stay in hospital he managed to get back across the border and is of course now ignoring all summonses against him. I suppose that the same situation applies when we take our cars across, as we are only third party covered, so extreme care is needed at all times. Just a word of warning really as many of you hire cars in the south and bring them across whilst on holiday, check that cover.
Want a laugh. Two ladies darts teams playing a competition match last week have been suspended. Apparently an argument broke out and abusive language was hurled instead of arrows, so now both teams are suspended from the leagues. No comment.......
The two presidents are meeting still and the next item on the agenda is the property issue. They are still talking which is hopeful but yet they both admit that there has been little progress made to date so don't hold your breath waiting for a settlement.
This week the Club Lapethos Hotel here in Lapta closed. Reports suggest that more than one quarter of the hotels here in the North have closed. The Hoteliers Union claim that there has been a marked decrease in the number of tourists to the TRNC since 2005. Despite this they still seem to be building more casino style hotels and the government is paying subsidies towards this growth. Seems a bit daft to me, they would be better to award money to tourism attractions and maybe to cheaper flights to grow this part of the economy, it offers much employment to locals.
"Peace in our time" The South, whilst negotiating how to bring the island together in peace and harmony, have just bought 41 Russian tanks. Strange sort of peace token.
The overall inflation figure for 2008 is calculated at 14.5% which compares with 9.5% in 2007. A fairly sharp rise but maybe to be expected.
Middle of a strange week weather wise. First we get cloudy and overcast but not too cold. This is followed by a Tuesday that is almost a summer day and then today which has gone very cold again by our standards. Well it has dropped down to 14 degrees in the middle of the day. That's not cold I hear you say but it is when you are acclimatised and the houses are not geared up to keeping warmth in. If the newspaper got it right we are going to get back to sunshine tomorrow and then rain on Friday, we'll see.
Charles and Yvonne, our new next door neighbours, arrived on the island over the weekend but have not yet taken up residence next door. They have rented an apartment in Lapta for a few weeks until their container arrives so are busy using the time to get residency etc sorted.
At least it also gives us another member for the boys night our brigade, which last night was back at The Ravine bar.
At last some substantial amounts of rain. It has in fact been pouring steady rain for the last 24 hours to the extent that our garden is flooding. Guess that all this extra rain in the pool has overflowed into the balance tank, so now, when it is dryer outside I will have to drop in the submersible pump and pump it out in to our garden tank. Lets just hope that it continues for the next week, so that the reservoirs and wells start to fill up ready for the summer.
Is it me or is everything I read these days designed to make us even more gloomy and downcast. The UK papers are just full of depression and now it is starting here as well. The only bright thing this week was the presidential inauguration in USA. Let us hope that all that people hope from him comes true. The man has a tremendous job in front of him, time will tell if he is up to it.
This weeks newspaper is supposed to be an economy special. The headline starts off "New businesses doomed to fail". Nice positive stuff. In fact the article suggests that as many as 600 businesses per month are going broke here and hundreds more start up already doomed to failure. It is a statistical fact here that one in every two families own their own business, as they believe that this is the way forward, but most don't realise how difficult it is to financially manage your own business and that the size of the population here doesn't justify all these shops and businesses. Still they try and when it goes wrong start pleading with the government for money to resolve the problems. This is private enterprise?
The other section of the paper is an Election Special. There is a general election on April 19th 2009 and already the infighting is starting. Begs the question, does any possible replacement have enough experience to ride the world storm and to change things here.
Lots of articles on the property situation and the Greek Cypriot are supposedly taking a hard line on ownership of land and waiting in the wings to pounce on any EU ruling on the Orams case. All of this is not surprising as both Presidents are about to start discussions on the property issue. What I find outstanding still is that there is no TRNC propaganda that tells the rest of the world and particularly to EU, that the world did not start here in 1974 and the original cause of the problem came from Greece and the South. A typical example of this is a speech made by the Greek Cypriot member of the EU at a dinner, where he described the Turkish army in Cyprus as an invasion force. For goodness sake, what did he expect Turkey to do, stand around and watch whilst their own people here where massacred. A huge propaganda opportunity for the Turks, which seems to be going begging.
Enough of all this negative, I am going to watch Liverpool/Everton so that I can come back with a smile on my face.
Wet and cold. That is about the sum of it this week, with lots more to come say the forecasters.
This made for a quiet week really, The boys just went out to The Celebrity bar on Tuesday, here in Lapta. We were lucky there, because there was a darts match on, so that meant free sandwiches all round.
This evening Joan and I went to pick Roger and Gill up from the airport. They are returning from a 10 week stint in UK, visiting grandchildren etc. Good old Roger brought me 4 cans of Ruddles as a taxi fare. I shall enjoy those at the weekend.
Because we were on an airport pick up last night and because the gang had not seen Roger and Gill for a little while, we had made the decision to have The Layabouts night out tonight, Friday. Because Joan and I had said the old Hensons restaurant, now called The Red Lion, was good Pat had been down and made a booking for 10 of us.
Good choice as we had excellent food and were well looked after. This was especially noticeable as the new owners had had to rush off back to UK and left the barman and chef to handle things. A great job was done and a fun evening.
The last day of the first month of January 2009 and the big news is that Gary Robb and his mother have both been extradited back to UK. Gary faces serious drug charges, dating back to 1997, when he came over here first and his mother faces charges of intending to pervert the course of justice.
It is believed that the pair were awoken very early on Wednesday morning and escorted back to Stansted, where they were arrested on arrival. It is alleged that he was trying to sneak 200,000 Euros off the island and that he was caught with illegal drugs and explosives.
The big question now of course is, what is going to happen to Amaranta Valley and other properties that he was developing. Maybe now that he has been sent back the government will step in to sort out the problem. It is to be hoped so, as many people have lost their life savings because of this man.
Already the aftermath begins. Mr Gurcafer, the head of the Construction Contractors Union is saying that he knows which government minister accepted bribes to help Gary Robb and how much. Could be fun times ahead, especially with an immanent election. Ministers are frantically trying to distance themselves from the whole affair.
The two presidents met for the first time last Wednesday to discuss the land and property issue. This has got to be the most difficult issue and I guess that they will have to bend lots to accommodate each others desires, always remembering that there are land owners on both sides of the island and both have claims.
There is hope for us yet. January rainfall is up 50% on last year, but is it going to be enough. I think we need lots more to replenish as it is also reported that 2007 and 2008 had the least rain for the last 99 years.
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